Fox & Mouse
by DropCookie
Summary: There's Youththful Lee, believing it Naruto, stern Neji, and so on. Then, there's mousey Hinata and her best friend Sakura. Then Gaara comes, and everything changes. High school fic, R&R, thanks.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: Konoha Blues

Gaara checked his surroundings for things that could potentially drive him to kill someone.

The bad news: Gaara saw some reasons to kill.

The good news: Gaara could only see three.

The first one was his older sister, Temari. She was making a last minute attempt to fix his hair. The second one was his other older sibling, Kankuro. Kankuro was doing something similar to Temari's actions, that is, he was criticising Gaara's outfit. _What kind of crime did I commit?_thought Gaara with annoyance. All he had done was throw on a black T-shirt and a pair of jeans. It wasn't like he was committing fashion suicide of something. They were walking to school, and his siblings were all over him. Gaara was the somewhat-baby of the family, being in 10th grade while his siblings were in grade 11 and 12. Of course, Gaara was also the scariest of the family, with eyes lined naturally with black (and unexplained phenomenon) and a tattoo on his forehead. _(It shouldn't be scary_,he thought. _It only says 'love'. _) They had just moved from the next town over, Sunagakure, to Konohagakure, for their father's job. They were on their way to the local high school, and Gaara hoped this wouldn't be the start of a very, very bad day.

Now, arriving and Konoha High, Gaara saw his third reason to murder someone. As soon as Gaara took a step into his first class, (Gaara had a good sense of direction) he was jumped by a large group of people his age. His siblings grinned and slinked away, leaving Gaara to deal with this on his own. He was barraged by a wall of names, Ino, Naruto, Sasuke, Chouji, Shikamaru (who only came up because he was dragged by his friends.), Tenten, Neji, Lee, Kiba, and Shino. How was he going to remember all of these names!?

Gaara only smiled slightly when he saw two girls walking slowly towards him. The one with the pink hair was quietly coaxing the girl with the black hair to say hello. The pink-haired girl caught his gaze and smiled. They walked up toward him, and the black-haired girl managed to stutter out some words. "Welcome... to Konoha, my... name is Hinata," she said. The one with the pink hair spoke up. "I'm Sakura, welcome," she said cheerfully, and Gaara tried a crooked and demented attempt at a smile. Sakura looked a little creeped out for a second, then she started to laugh. The boys gave him a pat on the back for the effort and then turned around as their teacher, Kakashi, arrived, nearly an hour late. _Ugh,_ he thought. Once the teacher actually got here, class was exactly the same as before.

Here we go again.

_Later_...

Gaara walked, panting and sweating, towards his new locker. Gaara had just experienced what a pain gym was at Konoha. His new teacher, Anko, knew no fears. His chest felt like she'd skewered him. He paused to dent a locker with a punch. The unlucky locker gave in to the larger being. Gaara's new friends had found this gym class especially amusing. Sure Gaara was strong and tall, but he was also a _huge_ clutz. The had started bastketball today, and Gaara had found himself tripping over every dropped ball and every foot that had been momentarily set on the ground. He had finally found is locker, and he pull it open and shoved his bag inside. It was lunch anyways. People were staring to shy away from him now as his eyes grew crazed. Gaara shut the locker and slid down to lean on it, groaning. A gentle hand tapped his slumped head from above him. He looked up and saw the pink-haired girl, Sakura, smiling down at him. "I take it you had gym class?" she asked, and his head slumped back to his chest in his attempt to nod. Sakura grinned. "Nobody can really meet Anko-sensei's expectations, save Lee. He can be a beast," she explained. He could picture Lee doing this. You couldn't not be athletic when you wore a jumpsuit to school everyday. Ugh.

Sakura held out her hand. "Let's go eat," she said. Gaara didn't take it, but he did get up. They started walking to the lunch room, better known as their sucky cafeteria. Gaara wondered if there was a restaurant nearby. He saw his new friends waving at him from the table where the usually sat. They were definitely not holding cafeteria food. Gaara looked at his own bagged lunch. He saw that Sakura was holding one too. Sakura shrugged.

Gaara's smile was just a little less contorted this time.


	2. Shukaku's Angels

Chapter 2

**Yo. So, before we start, I apologize if this chappy is crappy because I just had some very traumatizing experiences. First of all, we all thought that one of my friends had gone missing so everyone was panicking. It turns out she was just with her mom though. Go figure. Then, TODAY, I got this random paypal thing that says they're going to do, I don't know, something, to me if I don't pay them $888. Damn you. ANYWAYS, on with the story.**

The foolish yet severe young red-head had left several different impressions on his newfound classmates.

Naruto, usually bright and happy, was too afraid to ask if Gaara's black rimmed eyes were natural.

Shikamaru would've asked if Gaara's hair was natural, but he was too lazy. He would've never admitted he was scared though. His fear had grown slightly when he had seen Gaara's expression during gym.

Lee was impressed by Gaara's simple yet youthful clothing.

Tenten took one look at Gaara and decided that she needed to carry more than a swiss-army knife for self-defense.

Chouji noted how little this person was eating. Oh well, more for me, he thought.

Neji was moving protectively in front of Hinata.

Hinata willingly shrunk behind Neji.

Sakura smiled the serene smile that occasionally hid her bad temper. Everyone shuddered simultaneously. The last time Sakura had gotten angry, the science department had crashed to the ground and burst into flames. To this day, nobody could prove that it had been Sakura's fault, as Sakura had been sitting innocently in the English department at the time. Gaara sat down at the table. A draft entered the room, making everyone shiver. This was getting awkward. Ino tried to start a conversation. "Did you hear about the dance yet, Gaara?" she asked. Gaara hadn't, of course. He blinked. It was late October. There might be a Halloween dance. "Is anyone else here going?" added Ino, and most people murmured yes. Gaara made his decision.

"I'll go," he said.

Nearby, Temari and Kankuro instantly stood up. They both walked over to the table where Gaara and his friends were sitting.

"You _will?!_" they chorused.

"Sure," he replied.

"Well, good luck with that," said Temari. She winked, more at Shikamaru that Gaara, and left the table. Kankuro just sighed.

"Wear something decent," he said, eyeing Gaara's oufit.

"I think your clothes are very youthful" said Lee, expressing his thoughts out loud. Gaara just rested his head lightly on the table and groaned. He had to go find a costume. _Oh screw that,_ he thought, _I just won`t wear a costume._ Naruto seemed to read his thoughts. He leaned over and whispered, "Costumes are pretty much mandatory here, dude." Gaara let out another odd sound. The bell rang, and he walked numbly to his next class.

It was a relief when he found them as boring as usual.

_That evening._

Gaara was trying to do his homework, rack his brain for costume ideas, use the computer and play videos games all at once. Temari burst in, hoping all the while that he wasn't changing or something. She looked around at the mess. Gaara only tried multitasking when he was stressed.

"I'm going to help you find a costume," she announced. She practically saw him sigh in relief. Then his expression turned to one of horror when she grabbed him and jumped right out the window.

The arrived at the thrift store, and Gaara smelled the smell of used clothes that had been washed in that strange thrift store detergent. He wanted to run away. He had to go in anyways. He was surprised to find that there was some new merchandise there too, like fangs, and wigs and wings. The shopping though, was over in seconds. Temari handed him a pair of dove-white wings. "Here," she said, "Starting tomorrow morning you are an angel."

_Kankuro, back at home, had a strange urge to keel over laughing. He would have to ask Temari why later._

When Gaara got home, he checked the calendar. _Oh, _he thought. He been thinking of putting of the shopping for later, but now he could see why Temari had dragged him off the minute he got home.

Halloween was tomorrow. The phone on his desk rang. Gaara picked it up, a little dazed. Tomorrow. "Hello?" said the voice.

"Yeah, hi," replied Gaara.

"It's Sakura. Did you buy a costume?" she asked. Gaara nodded, even though she couldn't see him. She read his mind anyway. Gaara was beginning to wonder if his mind was like an open book or something. This happened way too often. "Okay, that's good," she continued, "What are you then?"

"Shh... It's a secret," said Gaara.

"Okay" said Sakura. Gaara could almost hear her smile.

Then, after he had hung up, Gaara had a thought. Where had she gotten his phone number?

"TEMARI!!!" he yelled.


	3. Raving Rabbits

Chapter 2

**Hi. So now we get to read about Gaara's angelic side. I love writing this. XD**

Gaara's costume was actually quite a hit. As he walked the hallways, he received compliments from people who were formerly quite scared of him. He couldn't blame them. His angelic side looked much gentler than his ordinary self. Girls giggled and blushed when the saw him, and the boys gave their unfortunately clumsy friend a big pat on the back. Each time they did this of course, Gaara ended up falling over. In the end , he had to fight his way to his locker without getting another friendly slap. He nearly smashed headfirst into his locker. "Hey, Gaara!" cried two boys, as they waved at him. It was Naruto and Sasuke, walking off together to class. They whistled at him mischeviously as they walked on. Naruto was a fox, while Sasuke was a raven. Or a crow, Gaara couldn't tell. As he looked around to see everyone else's costumes, he saw that none of the girls were wearing bunny costumes like at his old school. Ugh. The dreaded bunny costumes. They were considered acceptable at Suna because of the exceptional heat. Especially at night. Most of them were something totally harmless, like sleeping beauty of something. He walked to his homeroom and sat down. The wings were sort of getting in the way. Someone tapped his shoulder.

"Gaarrraaa!"said the voice. People seemed to be obsessed with his name. He turned around to see a little red riding hood with the hood up. The girl pulled her hood down to reveal none other than Haruno Sakura. "It's Halloween!!!" she cried, happier than he'd ever seen her. There was a glint in her eyes as she sat down beside him. She was holding a small basket of goodies. The boys around her started to drool. She handed one to Gaara. "This one is for you!" she said. Gaara wondered if he needed to scan it for poison or something. He looked at it suspiciously while the people around him nodded in approval. It was a small cupcake with a black happy face on it. _Screw caution_, he decided, and bit into the cookie. There was a peanut butter filling in side. Gaara made a little noise and smiled. Yum. She laughed, and went to hand a treat to Hinata. Kakashi walked in half an hour later. Gaara was so bored he wanted to fall asleep. In fact, many of the students were fast asleep. A boy dressed as a clown scraped face paint on his desk. Hinata and Sakura were the only two people in his homeroom. The school system was definitely strange, as their names started with and H, while his started, well, an S. Subaku no Gaara. As everyone finally drudged off to their classes, Gaara wondered if all this would be the same, all year long. He couldn't possibly stay sane like this for the next three years.

_Later, at Gaara's house._

"So, are you coming to the dance?" asked the two older sand siblings. Kankuro had, for once, washed all of his purple face makeup off, revealing a _very_pretty face underneath. Well, some of it was covered, as he was a racoon. Or a lemur, Gaara couldn't tell. Temari had also lined her eyes in a racoon-like way, but not with the intention of looking racoon-like. She was just your ordinary... Gaara had no idea what she was. Oh, wait. A geisha. Fun. He hair was done up in the usual style, with four spiky pigtails in the back. They were paying respects to Gaara's room, and were generally bothering Gaara with all their loud chatter.

"Go wash your face!" commanded Temari.

"Alright, alright," mumbled Gaara, and he marched into the bathroom, glad to be free of his rather vain siblings. He stared at himself in the mirror, at his own black rimmed eyes. He still had no idea how those had gotten there. The love symbol was a tattoo though. Given at birth. Who gives their child a tattoo at birth?! Well, his father did apparently, and this was the result. Gaara leaned down and vigourously washed his face. Then he burst out of the bathroom.

"Let's go," he said.

_At Konoha high._

The music was thumping hard as Gaara and his siblings went through security checks. It felt like a heartbeat, and it made his head spin. Then this headache got just a little worse as he saw something come towards him.

_Oh dear God, _he thought, _not the friggin bunnies._

Oh, but they weren't just bunnies. They were ladybugs and tennis players and bumblebees and jokers, all bearing things Gaara didn't really want to see. His headache thumped to the rhythmas they walked down into a haunted house. Strobe lights flashed as he struggled to follow his siblings, who were obviously enjoying themselves. He could barely see. He guessed that that was the point. When they finally got out, everyone was dancing up a storm. Gaara threw himself against the wall and took deep breaths. Naruto came up to him.

"I take it this has never happened to you before," he observed.

"The _bunnies_," said Gaara, panting.

"Oh, it's okay, since they're mostly just grade twelves anyway. We don't need to talk to them," said Naruto, smiling. Sakura came out from behind Naruto, and held out her hand. Gaara took it.

"Yeah," he said unenthusiastically.

**A/N: So, sorry that took so long. I was having a WRITERS BLOCK lol. Hope you enjoyed it.**


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